National CPS News Archive

National News Coverage

Flower Tompson, 28, was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison on one count of felony child abuse for failing to stop the abuse of Brandon Williams, 5, who died March 21, 2007 at a local hospital.

His body was covered with dozens of marks, indicating various stages of healing injuries. An autopsy showed he died of multiple skull fractures, which led to bleeding in the brain and respiratory arrest. At the time of the boy's death, Marsh and her common-law husband, Mark Lee Moss, had been living with Tompson for months. Moss was not charged in the case.

WILKES-BARRE - A report issued by a non-profit child advocacy organization shows Luzerne County's child welfare system is performing well in comparison to other counties, but there are areas that need improvement.

Joan Benso, executive director of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, said statistics indicate Luzerne County has a good record in keeping foster children who were reunified with their family from subsequently re-entering the system.

The creation of a State Office of the Child Advocate will be a worthy step toward improving protections for children, but only if DSS reforms go considerably beyond simply rebranding that beleaguered agency as the Department of Children and Families.

That name change reflects the desire of the Patrick administration's to make protecting the welfare of children and families the agency's top priority. The legislation also recreated a multi-member child abuse prevention board.

An effort is under way locally to open a transitional shelter in Greeneville for area victims of domestic violence. The shelter, called Safe Harbor Home, will provide long-term housing and services to victims of abuse.

A native of Puerto Rico, Velez, who is also a Christian minister, has worked in the child protective services field for nearly 20 years. He served with the state of Florida's child protective services for 16 years before moving to Greene County with his wife, Lillian, three years ago.

Democratic candidates may state they are against war, but when put to the test they are just as likely to be the cause of innocent children dying as Republicans.

A Democratic congressman is responsible for the 1974 Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) which laid the groundwork for the destruction of thousands of American families - eventually terminating parental rights, traumatizing many thousands of children and their parents...

In 2006, the New York Legislature began funding the deployment and testing of mobile technologies to help child protective services (CPS) caseworkers deal with their caseloads.

Over the course of the two-year study, 600 CPS caseworkers from 27 local social service departments participated. Approximately 500 caseworkers responded to online surveys, while 186 caseworkers and supervisors participated in 24 small workshops and interviews. In addition, data analysis was performed on approximately 180,000 progress note records for 18,000 open cases.

Pima County sheriff's deputies have arrested a Tucson couple and charged them with child abuse after discovering they were keeping a 9-year-old boy in a closet in their home, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.

The boy, who is nearly 10, weighs 48 pounds, appears pale, cannot read or write and did not attend school, said Deputy Dawn Hanke. He and his brother, 8, were removed from the home by the state's Child Protective Services and are in state custody.

Texas child abuse investigators are being advised to seek court orders before removing children from their home in all but the most dangerous situations, one of several major policy changes demanded by a federal appeals court.

The new standards, lauded by parental rights advocates and decried by prosecutors, arose out of a ruling late last month by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in a long-running lawsuit against the state filed by a Fort Bend County couple and their 13 children.

This is not an isolated incident, it happens all across our country. Our grandchildren we stolen by DHS and adopted away from us!

We are just not understanding why it is that a grandmother known as Rose Lucas can get the attention of a state Senator, who helped her to get her grandchildren back from DHS. Yes, we don't know the circumstances of her case but we do know the facts of ours.

They fought a landmark legal case for the right to keep their youngest child after the forcible adoption of their first three children in what has been described as 'an appalling miscarriage of justice.'

Now Mark and Nicky Webster are celebrating learning that Nicky is pregnant once more. The news comes as the couple prepare to launch their Appeal Court bid to be reunited with their three oldest children, who were all under the age of five when they were removed from their care by Norfolk County Council four years ago.

BROOKSVILLE - Local parents who homeschool their children are in no hurry to send their children back to Hernando County public schools. That much became clear after Thursday's meeting at the school district, hosted by Superintendent Wayne Alexander.

One by one, nearly a dozen of the parents stood behind a podium and told a panel of district experts why they initially pulled their children out of local public schools. According to finance director Deborah Bruggink, each child pulls in approximately $3,998 in state funding. If all homeschooled students enrolled in district schools, that could add as much as $3.34 million to the district's budget.

A West Michigan family is speaking out in hopes a system that protects newborns gets fixed. Amber McIntyre-Roden was charged last month with murdering her 2-month-old daughter, Tamiah.

The adoptive parents of Tamiah's sister tell 24 Hour News 8 Tamiah could have been saved -- rescued from her mother. The Sees adopted Kylene. In July, when Kylene turned 3, her birth mother, McIntyre-Roden, paid her a visit. McIntyre-Roden brought another visitor - her new baby, Tamiah.

Chimpanzees take better care of their young than the State of Indiana, and they use only their natural instincts. How much training does it take to figure out that a two-year-old who tested positive for methamphetamine is not safe in his home?

We, the taxpayers, demand that DCS perform the duties they have been hired to perform. Susan Tielking is a waste of office space. Her job is to recite the same old, "state confidentiality rules prohibit her from revealing specifics about the case." Our legislators must remove "confidentiality" from any and all juvenile cases. Then we can kick Susan to the curb.

Texas child welfare officials on Tuesday asked a court to order foster care for eight children at a polygamous compound, saying their mothers have refused to limit the children's contact with men suspected of being involved in underage marriages.

Child Protective Services officials also asked the court to end cases for 32 children after finding no evidence that their families engaged in underage marriages. The agency has been investigating the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado since April, when it raided the compound and seized more than 400 children on allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

During this year's regular session, the West Virginia Legislature considered, but did not pass, a bill designed to improve social worker safety.

The bill would have increased criminal penalties for those who commit felony or misdemeanor assault and battery on child protective or adult protective service workers in the field. The Legislature this year did pass a bill providing adult and child protective services workers personal immunity from civil liability, meaning that they cannot be sued for doing their job.

Two weeks after placing her baby in home-based child care, Lakisha Dickerson got a worrisome phone call. Something didn't seem right, the child care provider, Latanya Murphy, told Dickerson, who immediately left work and came to check on her child.

Murphy, 43, is charged with two counts of child abuse, felonies that carry as much as 10 years in prison. Lynchburg Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge William Light on Monday heard testimony from Dickerson and another mother who testified their children came home injured after being in Murphy's care.

Parents of a 16-year-old boy in intensive care with a broken back want to know why police Tasered their son 19 times rather than calling an ambulance for help.

When police arrived, they found Hutchinson under an overpass on U.S. 65 Saturday morning, Springfield's KY3 News reported. The boy had fallen 30 feet off the overpass and was lying on the shoulder. When the boy didn't respond to police, they Tasered him, repeatedly.

For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room - made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave - the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water.

The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the city's human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people - her parents, four social workers and three family friends - in her ghastly death.

Summer gardens are heading into their peak producing weeks, and it's a time-honored rite of the season to share and swap the bounty with neighbors, friends, family and co-workers.

But before you load up that basket of fresh-picked tomatoes, peppers and zucchini, and before you cut a bouquet of flowers to take to your mom, check out the latest version of the county's light brown apple moth quarantine map. Lines have recently been redrawn to include even more of Santa Clara County in an effort to curb the spread of this relatively new and voracious pest.

Four social workers were among nine people charged Thursday in the death of a disabled 14-year-old girl who authorities say wasted away from neglect before dying at 42 pounds.

Warrants were issued for all nine defendants Thursday. Andrea Kelly, the mother of Danieal, was charged with murder, and father Daniel Kelly, who did not live with the family, was charged with child endangerment.

Lobbyists and "special interests" have a pretty bad reputation these days. But not all lobbyists are out to get tax breaks for bigwigs. And some special-interest groups really are special.

That's why I was delighted to learn that the California Youth Connection, an organization that has been banging on doors in Sacramento for 20 years, demanding reform for the foster care system, is receiving a prestigious award today from the James Irvine Foundation. The 2008 Leadership Award recognizes Californians who have successfully tackled some of the state's most critical challenges, from poverty to health care to the environment.

Having a family member step in to care for a relative's children when the state takes them away is better for the children than foster care, research shows. It makes sense that a grandmother can help a child thrive and feel connected and loved.

It also saves taxpayer money. Yet, Ohio will soon strip day-care vouchers from about 1,000 people who are employed and have custody of relatives' kids, but can't afford day care themselves. The state has ordered counties to stop giving child-care vouchers to people caring for relatives' kids unless they meet federal poverty guidelines.

Social services bosses fear Doncaster residents may be breaking laws on child care by not telling them about so-called private fostering.

Doncaster Council is launching an awareness campaign because it fears some families make their own short term child care arrangements with friends without letting the authority know. The practice, known as private fostering, means a child under 16 lives with someone other than their parent or close relative for more than 28 days. There is a legal duty to report the arrangement.